Organic work

Organic work (Polish: praca organiczna) was a term adopted from Herbert Spencer by the 19th century Polish positivists, denoting an ideology demanding that the vital powers of the nation be spent on labour (i.e. work at the foundations) rather than fruitless national uprisings against the overwhelming military presence of the neighbouring empires. The basic principles of the organic work included education of the masses and increase of the economical potential of the Poles. This was to turn the Polish lower classes into a modern nation and put a stop to the successes of Germanization and Russification, pursued by the occupiers of partitioned Poland.

Increasing oppression at Russian hands after failed national uprisings (the January Uprising and the November Uprising) finally convinced Polish leaders that the insurrection was premature at best and perhaps fundamentally misguided and counterproductive. During the decades that followed, Poles largely forsook the goal of immediate independence and turned instead to fortifying the nation through the subtler means of education, economic development, and modernization. This approach took the name Organic Work for its philosophy of strengthening Polish society at the grass roots, influenced by positivism. For some, the adoption of Organic Work meant permanent resignation to foreign rule, but many advocates recommended it as a strategy to combat repression while awaiting an eventual opportunity to achieve self-government.

Neither as colorful as the rebellions nor as loftily enshrined in national memory, the quotidian methods of Organic Work proved well suited to the political conditions of the later nineteenth century. The international balance of forces did not favour the recovery of statehood when both Russia and Germany appeared bent on the eventual eradication of Polish national identity. The German Empire, established in 1871 as an expanded version of the Prussian state, aimed at the assimilation of its eastern provinces inhabited by Poles. At the same time, St. Petersburg attempted to russify the former Congress Kingdom, joining Berlin in levying restrictions against use of the Polish language and cultural expression. Poles under Russian and German rule also endured official campaigns against the Roman Catholic Church: the Cultural Struggle (Kulturkampf) of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to bring the Roman Catholic Church under state control and the Russian campaign to extend Orthodoxy throughout the empire.

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